Cream of the musical crop whip up top beats

FESTIVAL fans tasted the cream of the musical crop at Punchestown on Saturday.

The Creamfields festival at Punchestown Racecourse catered for the 35,000 people in attendance with an extensive menu of musical talent.

Six arenas boasted more than 60 acts, with international bands, singers and DJs doing their thing to delight the masses.

Underworld joined other well-known artists such as Faithless and the Sugababes to headline the biggest dance music festival in Europe.

But it is the DJs who give the Creamfields festival its unofficial air of competition.

Along with the main outdoor stage, the DJs battled for the crowds at the Bugged Out stage, the Lush stage, the Cream Future Trance Arena and Lust stage.

Mauro Picotto, Justin Robertson, Sasha, Seb Fontaine and Judge Jules served up their usual scintillating sets.

But their Irish counterparts performed equally as well, with Johnny Moy, Mr Spring and Mark Kavanagh all giving solid performances.

However, not everyone had a great day out. Gardaí have confirmed that there were more than 200 people arrested at the festival on drug-related charges.

Sergeant Kieran McCarthy, of Naas Garda station, said yesterday: “There were a number of arrests made.

"They were mostly drug related but were not serious. However, files are being prepared to be sent to the DPP in relation to a number of them.”

Sergeant McCarthy said that although the number of people arrested may seem high it must be remembered that there were around 35,000 people at Creamfields.

“We had far more arrests last year,” he said.

Gardaí made 580 drug seizures at Creamfields 2001 amongst a crowd of 34,000, and proceedings were taken against a number of them.

The dust may have settled on another successful Creamfields festival, but the work continues.

It will take four days to dismantle all of the stages and return the site to its former peace.